


batteries not included

by kittymills



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Android Shiro, Angst and Feels, Gen, M/M, POV Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-02-21 15:30:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18705136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittymills/pseuds/kittymills
Summary: Keith, Hunk, Pidge, and Lance are technicians for the Empire.A fighting droid gets brought to them to be repaired, but Keith quickly learns it's not like the others.He can't let it go back to the arena... but he may not have a choice.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a redo of a fic I tried to write last year but ended up taking down from AO3 because I started over thinking it and panicked.
> 
> I went back to my original idea for it and decided to finish it.

 

 

> I wonder how it is I miss,
> 
> these things I’ve never known.
> 
>   
>  — Lang Leav, A Stranger 

 

The passing of the storm leaves tiny droplets that shine like diamonds against the smooth surface of the glass. Outside the city bustles, tightly held in the grasp of the Empire.

In his workspace though, it was quiet. Quiet, and cold and stark, just the way he liked it.

Until it wasn’t anymore.

“They’re bringing in another other one,” Hunk announces as the door slides open. He’s trailed by a handful of sentries, a hovering platform between them adorned with a vaguely humanoid shape.  “Hope you’re ready for it. It’s one of Sendak’s specials.”

Keith looks up with a frown. The sentries slide their delivery onto the nearest workbench then march silently back out leaving only Hunk behind, his normally jovial face stretched into the mask of unease.

“What do you mean by that?” Keith unfurls from his stool and makes his way to the workbench. He shares this space with Team V, a collection of technicians and specialists that assist in the maintenance and upkeep of the special projects created by High Commander Sendak.  “This looks like a fighting droid.”

“It is,” Hunk replies. “You’re looking at the Champion.”

“What?” Keith blinks at the shape on the table. It’s huge, as tall as Hunk, but not quite as wide under the plastic sheet. He can see tiny pools of water in the crevasses from the rain. The storms battering the city lately have been relentless, and the unusual, otherworldly lightning had caused many an issue, including this.

“The arena got hit by one of those freaky lightning strikes. This guy was in the middle of a bout when it zapped him and half the audience.”

Keith hesitates to pull back the plastic sheet. He’s heard of the Champion, the prized gladiator of the High Commander and the Emperor himself. It was said to be undefeated.

They also said that when it bled, it bled like a living thing. Deep rivers of endless red, pooling in the sawdust of the arena. 

“So, is it out of commission? Are we scrapping it?”

Hunk looks horrified. “No! Well, at least not yet. We gotta try to get it working again. Commander Sendak’s orders.”

Keith can’t help the curl of his lips. This would be just another one in a long line of bots they’d received and repaired and sent back on their way. He wonders how long until it’s no longer worth repairing.

Hunk pats him on the shoulder with a meaty paw. “This one is all yours, Keith. See you in the morning.”

Keith doesn’t bother to respond as Hunk seals the lab behind him.

 

* * *

 

It’s hours later when the crick in his neck finally forces him to take a break.

Outside the black was rapidly turning into a soft pink dawn and he knew he would soon have to think about making an escape before the rest of the team arrived. He’d worked through the night on his tasks, alone in the lab when it was quiet meant he actually had the ability to think. No Lance chattering in his ear, no Pidge mumbling to herself in the corner and no Hunk sliding greasy fingers over his tools. 

He slides off the bench and stretches, letting the pop of his muscles ease him out of his own mind and back into the reality of the lab. Then he catches sight of it; the long shape under the tarp not far away. It had been in the back of his mind for hours but somehow, he was reluctant to pull the cover away to see what was underneath.

He takes a few steps towards it now. There’s a white card attached to one of its wrists poking out from under the plastic sheet, a wrist that looks disturbingly human enough that Keith wonders if this thing should really be in the morgue instead. He reads the identification code out loud to himself.

“Synthetic Human Initiative – Revision Omega.”

Synthetic human? That was a new one. The bots they usually worked on were obviously androids, humanoid features but still unmistakably mechanical. He’d never heard of a synthetic human before and that was saying a lot considering he was a tech that worked directly for the inner circle of the Empire.

He curls his fingers around the edge of the sheet and yanks it away, blinking at the sight before him.

The bot is horrifyingly beautiful and unerringly humanlike in its amalgamation of organic and synthetic material. A small screen rests on its chest, and Keith can see the faint blip and reading of what looks suspiciously to be a heartbeat.

Keith scrambles back, swearing softly to himself.

_Shit._ Holy shit, this was only half a bot. The rest of him seems to be human.

It takes a moment before Keith can manage to force himself to approach again. He doesn’t like the weird tingle that suddenly seems to scatter over his skin. He doesn’t the odd sensation of a hand reaching into the cavity of his chest and drawing him close. 

Close to what? 

He blinks at the bot in front of him.

_Synthetic Human Initiative – revision Omega._ There’s no other name, no other identification and somehow that feels wrong.

Keith stares into the bot’s face, the strong jaw, the lips that look like they should be on a pleasure droid not on a fighter. Something prickles at the back of his mind, something long dormant and long forgotten.

“Synthetic Human Initiative Revision Omega,” Keith murmurs out loud. “Yeah, so that’s a mouthful, and I’m not calling you that.”

Keith glances down at the card again. In the top right corner are the letters SHI-R-O. 

“Shiro. I’m going to call you Shiro.”

 

* * *

 

“Are you sure this thing isn’t really human?”  Lance demands, hands on his hips as he stands eye to eye with the bot. 

They’ve sat the droid upright now, placed lovingly by Hunk into a medical diagnostic couch, half reclined as though simply lounging back. Its eyes are closed, but the faint energy source coming from it has everyone scratching their heads. And it _\- he? -_ does look human… partly. His right side is bionic, weaponised for his bouts in the area, so are parts of his legs and his jaw. There’s a tear in the surface of his face that looks eerily like he’s had a swipe right over the bridge of his nose that hadn’t been repaired properly and his hair hangs long against his shoulders. The strands are a deep raven hue with a shock of white at his peak and Keith wonders what they would feel like against his fingers.

He looks real. Achingly real.

“It has a heartbeat, that’s kind of freaky, huh?” Hunk adds.

“It’s soft too, at least in some parts. And it’s warm, like a person,” Lance says, lifting one hand to poke at one of the bot’s chiselled cheeks.

Something about the prodding motion makes Keith annoyed. “Stop it, Lance.”

“What? Look. It’s powered down. What can it do? It’s weird though. Why make something that’s designed to fight in the arena so human and soft and… _squishy?_ ”

Lance goes to poke the bot again but Keith steps in front of him, effectively blocking his ability to make contact.

Lance backs off reluctantly.

“Maybe it’s part of the show?” Pidge suggests. “Something humanlike to fend off all those monsters…. It can even bleed.”

“It’s not an _it_ ,” Keith interrupts. The way they talk about Shiro sets his teeth on edge. The bot sits there still and quiet, only the tiny blip of a synthetic heartrate on the monitor. Keith tries not to think about what colour the eyes will be when they finally open. “It’s a…it’s a him.”

“A _what?”_ Lance looks instantly aghast, until his eyes narrow and he pins Keith with a stare. “How do you know? Did you check? Keith, did you look in its pants-“

“No!” Keith resists the urge to knee Lance somewhere incredibly sensitive just to stop him talking. He picks up the identification card and slaps it against Lance’s chest instead. “Here.”

Lance reads out the stats and the title, stumbling over the words. Keith folds his arms.

“Synthetic human initiative?” Pidge frowns heavily and turns to Hunk.

“And if it’s already down to the omega revisions…. Why haven’t we heard of these before?”

“Who cares!” Lance yells. “This thing is going to be a bitch to fix. We’ll just call it deathbot-“

“No.” Keith shakes his head. “Shiro. We’re going to call him Shiro.”

“What?!”

“No.”

“Nope, that’s a bad idea dude.”

“Keith, never name the bots,” Pidge hisses at him. Her eyes spark behind her glasses. “You should know that! Don’t _ever_ get attached to them-“

Keith stands firm, his eyes on Sendak’s champion. He can’t explain it. The energy that’s drawing him. The vibration that thrums through him whenever he looks at the human shape in front of them. He stares up at his face, ignoring the protests from his workmates.

He has the dizzying sense of the world falling into place around him, which makes zero sense because the world hasn’t made sense since the dawn of the first day the empire came.

“This one is different.”


	2. Chapter 2

He’s alone again in the lab, alone save for the bot. The team is planning to power him up tomorrow but Keith wants to be the one to do it.

He wants to be the first thing Shiro sees when he opens his eyes.

The hand is warm where he touches it. He expects it to be cold and dull, obviously fake but there’s too much vibrancy under the skin despite his shut down state. His nose is straight despite the tear, his cheeks are smooth under the scar. Keith swears he saw the lips twitch at one point, then berates himself for even considering it.

Shiro looks human, he feels human, but he _isn’t._

Keith finds him wishing that he was.

It was sad, really. The state of his own mind, his own loneliness that would have him latching onto a machine. An inoperable one at that.

But there was something about this bot that calls to him, that makes his chest ache and his soul yearn in ways he believed long dead.

He attaches the cables and checks the settings. Only a flip of the switch, the smack of a button, and this bot – _Shiro_ – would be opening his eyes and sitting up.

He didn’t want to do this in front of the others. He didn’t want those synthetic eyes to open and be vacant and Keith fall apart. But there was a part of him that wondered. What was this pull? Or maybe he just recognized another broken thing, empty on the inside like him.

He swallows once as his hand overs the button and there’s the dizzying sensation he’s on the cusp of something. He’s standing on the edge, a crumbling world around him and the yawning abyss below.  He wants to fall. Anything would be better than here, dying with the boot of the empire on their throats. Then there’s the gentle press to the pad with one fingertip and the machines whirl and the monitors flash to life. 

But Shiro… Shiro doesn’t move.

Keith frowns, his eyes scanning over the read outs, his heart rate hammering hard enough he feels like it’s about to burst out of his chest. 

Everything is optimal, the readings indicate power was strong and steady. He peers into the bot’s face. “Shiro?”

Shiro’s eyes open then, and a sea of liquid silver greets him.

They’re beautiful. More beautiful than Keith could ever have imagined. But they’re familiar too. Yet he doesn’t remember them.

“K-k-k...Ke…Kei…Keith…Kei-thh-”

It takes a moment before the roaring in his head subsides enough that he realises the sound of his name is coming from the bot. He blinks, stumbles back, just as Shiro’s inner mechanics whir and click distantly and he shifts and sits up, back straight, chest strong and wide, chin slightly raised. His posture alone hints that he’s not organic, no human could pull themselves upright with such grace and flow. He places his hands in his lap, soft synthetic over metal.

He’s beautiful, Keith thinks distantly. He’s _perfection_.

Shiro’s head turns smoothly and Keith feels like he needs to take another step back, but he can’t. He’s suddenly laid down roots, anchored deep enough he’s not sure if he can ever move again.

“Keith,” the bot says again, and the sound of it is like a caress over Keith’s soul he’s been waiting a lifetime to hear. Something deep inside him he long thought dead stirs and sighs softly.

“How… how do you know my name?”

Keith’s voice is rough when it finally escapes his throat. The wonder has faded into confusion and is now slipping dangerously into fear. It fades though. It fades quickly when Shiro tilts his head and the pale pink synthetic lips twitch and curve upwards.

“I dreamed about you.”

 

* * *

 

When the rest of the team file in hours later, Keith has detached Shiro from the monitors and the droid stands beside him as he works quietly, skilfully completing repairs at the workbench. 

They freeze just inside the doorway in shock.

It’s Lance that recovers first.

_“What the fuck, Keith!”_

“You… you fixed it,” Hunk adds. Pidge quickly checks that the lab door has slid shut again then fires the locks until the lights blink red.

“Him,” Keith corrects quietly. He doesn’t bother to look up.

“I am Shiro,” the bot says. He stands ramrod straight beside the workbench. His head turns and his eyes shift and trace over the three figures just by the door. “And you are the rest of team V. Lance, Hunk and Pidge.”

“Oh, great,” Lance mutters uneasily. “I bet Keith has been telling you all sorts of lies about us.”

Shiro’s head tilts slightly, such a human movement that Keith’s heart seems to snag on the inside of his ribs. It’s surprisingly painful.

Pidge stares at Shiro with bright eyes. She looks more curious than alarmed, although the same couldn’t be said for Hunk and Lance. “So… we’re really going with that?”

Shiro answers before Keith can.

“Synthetic Human Initiative. I am revision omega. Shiro is… more efficient to say.”

Her jaw pops open. Her eyes become wide and suspiciously bright behind her glasses. “Oh boy,” she breathes heavily. Keith has the urge to step back.

“Shiro, huh?” Hunk rubs his chin. He slides a glance over at Keith that Keith can’t read. “I guess I can work with that.”

 

* * *

 

Keith likes working with Shiro in the lab.

During the day, Shiro remains still and quiet in his diagnostic bay, eyes open as he catalogues the team’s banter and work pace. He doesn’t talk. He doesn’t move.

Unless provoked.

It’s after lunch when Lance folds an old paper manual into an airplane and sends it sailing. It swoops in Shiro’s direction and is suddenly crushed in a metallic hand.

“Whoa,” Lance breathes. They all stop. “Is that… Did you guys see that?”

“Keith, I thought you said he was powered down?” Pidge demands. She’s small but she’s formidable. Her voice cuts like a razor.

Keith frowns. He turns back to his task. “No, _you_ said that. He’s been watching the whole time.”

“It’s been watching us!?” Lance screeches and backs away too fast. A metal stool clatters to the ground.

Then silence.

“Uh,” Hunk looks nervously between Shiro and Keith.  “Keith, buddy. You want to explain?”

Keith puts down his tools and walks to Shiro. Shiro turns his wrist and his metal fingers unfurl. The expression on his face is still placidly blank.

Keith dumps the paper plane in the trash.

“Keith,” Pidge snarls his name this time. He fights the urge to flinch.

“I can’t power him down,” Keith says. Lance’s eyes bulge. “Not until I figure out what’s wrong with him.”

“Keith, you know the protocols.”

“Yeah! We can’t have a killbot in the lab! What if it goes rogue? What if tries to _kill_ us?”

Keith snaps his glare to Lance. “Don’t call him that.”

“What? _Killbot?_ That’s what it is, isn’t it? It’s the Emperors _Champion-“_

“No,” Keith sets his jaw and shakes his head. “He’s… he’s something else.”

Lance shrieks. _“Are you freakin’ kidding me?”_

The high pitch of Lance’s voice beats against his eardrums. It makes his head hurt and he rubs his temple.

“He’s not a threat,” Keith says. He looks at Shiro. “Are you?”

The anomaly in the readings flicker again. He’s not the only one who notices. Shiro goes still but there’s no further response.

Lance shoots Keith a glare and gathers up his tools. “Oh, fuck this. I am out.” He storms to the other side of the lab, as far away as he can get from Keith and the bot that lingers beside him like a silent sentinel. Keith tries to find it inside him to feel bad but he can’t find it under the rush of something inexplicable swirling inside his blood.

“It was just a defence protocol, right?” Hunk says. Keith knows him well enough to hear the uneasiness in his tone. “Like, he’s programmed to that. Just an automated response. Right?”

No one really answers, except for a low jeer of _killbot_ from Lance in the corner.

It’s not long before they go back to work, but Keith can feel Pidge’s eyes burning into the back of his neck. He’s not surprised when she slides close and hisses under her breath.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Keith.”

He shifts uncomfortably. “I’m not doing anything.”

The narrowed look she gives him makes him feel like he’s lying.

 

* * *

 

The couch against the far wall calls to him, fatigue tugging at his limbs. He should go home, shower and eat more than a few protein bars but he can’t bring himself to leave the lab.

To leave Shiro.

There’s something there he can’t understand. A flicker in the readouts he can’t explain. It shouldn’t be there and he stares hard at the planes of Shiro’s face, wondering and yearning.

The empire created this bot as a mockery of the human race they conquered but then turned it into their champion. But there’s a softness to him that speaks to Keith of more than battle, a shine in synthetic eyes that Keith swears could be a soul. It has to be, why else would his own reach for him so deeply.

There’s precious little data on the Synthetic Human Initiative, nothing he can access. He drops his datapad to the workbench with a clatter and rubs his hands over his eyes.

“Keith.”

The whisper of his name makes him sit up. Then Shiro moves, stealing any response from his mouth. Keith still expects Shiro’s movements to be jerky, like a newborn lamb or a worker bot that hadn’t quite been calibrated properly but Shiro moves smooth like silk. He glides to the window, the glow from the lights of the city skyline tint his skin in magenta hues.

In the far distance is the arena. The jewel of Zarkon’s Empire. Keith hopes Shiro doesn’t realise what it is, hopes that it doesn’t call to him.

Shiro’s expression changes before Keith’s eyes. The softer parts of his synthetic skin shift downwards.

It’s almost like he’s… frowning.

Keith’s breath catches in this throat. His voice is scratchy with wonder. “Shiro?”

“Keith,” Shiro says again. He faces away from Keith. “What is love?”

Keith drops his gaze to the tools in his hands, the circuits in front of him. How can love be anything but a word to Shiro, with his circuits and synthetic parts? He tries to ignore the ache in his chest.

“It’s… It’s home.”

Shiro’s head shifts, it looks like his gaze flickers. Keith tells himself it’s just a trick of the light.

“Home. The place where one lives. Do you not have a home, Keith?”

“I have one,” Keith says. _Here,_ he thinks. Where it’s quiet and calm and the chaos outside can’t touch him. “Here.”

“Here.”

“Yes.”

“I am here.”

Keith feels it again, the same feeling the night they brought Shiro to the lab. That scratch along the edge of his mind, like a dog at the door begging to be let out.

“Yes, Shiro. You are.”

 

* * *

 

“Hey Keith, can you hand me that- Oh. Uh. Thank you… Uh, Shiro.”

Lance eyes Shiro suspiciously. He doesn’t bother to hide his discomfort. “Look, no offence Keith but can you go make your killbot go stand over there? It’s kinda freaking me out.”

Keith bites the inside of his cheek, refusing to allow himself to take Lance’s bait. Instead, he turns to Shiro and affects a bored tone.

“Shiro, Lance would like you to move. He says you’re making him uncomfortable.”

“Uncomfortable,” Shiro rumbles. His tone is flat and even. “Causing or feeling slight pain or physical discomfort.”

“Yes.”

Shiro swivels his head in Lance’s direction. “Do I cause you pain, Lance? Do I cause you physical discomfort?”

“Yes!” Lance yells. His arms flail. “You’re freaking me out! Keith!”

“What?”

Lance whines. “Seriously, man. I’m trying to work here. That thing could rip my throat out with one swipe-“

“He won’t.”

“You don’t know that! Who knows what that lightning strike did to his circuits? Maybe he’s just some kind of sleeper that’s gonna murder us all in our sleep?”

Hunk looks suddenly alarmed by that. “Uh. He has a point, Keith.”

“He’s not going to murder anyone!”

“Come on, man,” Lance looks visibly upset. He gives Shiro a nervous sideways glance. “Make it go away.”

Keith sighs and lays down his tools but Shiro retreats without further prompting. They watch in startled silence as Shiro glides to his diagnostic bay and stands still and silent beside the couch. Keith experiences a skitter down his spine. There’s a curve to Shiro’s lips that shouldn’t be there.

The anomaly in the readings flicker again.

He’s not the only one who notices.

 

* * *

 

Keith has lost count of the days when Pidge corners him in the lab. He’s barely left it’s four walls since Shiro arrived but the lab feels more like home than his tiny room in the boarding house ever did.

She jabs a finger at Shiro’s direction and her eyes spark fire.  

“Have you been tampering with his protocols?” she demands.

Keith’s mouth pops open. “No. You know I can’t do that.”

Pidge’s face twists angrily. “Yeah? Then why am I suddenly shut out?”

“What are you talking about?” Keith’s eyes flick over her shoulder. Shiro sits in the diagnostic bay, still and quiet, eyes closed. He looks like he’s sleeping.

“I was running the diagnostics earlier and he booted me.”

Keith shrugs. “So?”

“So? So?!” Pidge looks like she wants to thump him. Her tiny hand curls around his wrist almost painfully. “That’s impossible. Who else has had access to him?”

Keith shakes his head. “No-one. Just us.”

As quickly as she’d grabbed him, she releases him and steps back. Her eyes are clouded with something he can’t read.

“Keith,” she whispers. “What _is_ he?”


	3. Chapter 3

“You were right,” Pidge says to him later.  She hands him the datapad and slides over to perch beside him at the workbench. “He _is_ more than a bot. He’s some kind of clone. Only they don’t call them clones anymore. Synthetic human. The real version of him was a fighter pilot in the first contact war. His entire squadron got wiped out and went into the ocean.”

“So… he’s real?” Keith frowns. He swipes through the pages of text and equations, until he comes to a photograph. A young man in a grey uniform, badges against his chest. He can see the resemblance.

Odd that he doesn’t feel anything.

“ _He’s_ not,” Pidge says with a jerk of her head at Shiro’s direction. “He’s a copy. A heavily edited and manipulated copy at that.”

“But he’s real,” Keith presses.

Pidge looks tired. “Keith, I don’t know _what_ he is.”

 

* * *

 

Days pass and Shiro’s tattered edges are stitched back together but Keith keeps finding new tests to run… and new, unexplained anomalies appear in his code.

Hunk and Lance materialize beside him, expressions troubled. They exchange a glance Keith pretends he can’t see before Hunk sighs. 

“Keith, listen. You know we’re going to have to give him back, right?”

Keith wants to ignore him. He wants to ignore them both and everything else outside of the four walls of the lab. 

“No.”

He keeps working on replacing the small patch of frayed synthetic skin on the back of Shiro’s shoulder. The cut looked like it had come from some kind of blade, vicious with its dull edges that tore and shredded at some of the tech inside. It made him angry deep inside to see it and had he been human, Keith might have rubbed that shoulder in sympathy.

“No? _No?_ Keith, you don’t get to decide that,” Lance snaps at him angrily.  Keith doesn’t bother to look up.

“He’s not going back to the arena.”

“Fuck you, Keith. You can’t keep him. Even if you wanted to, even if it was legal. You can’t. These things are all traceable and mandated to the Empire. No matter where you go, they’ll trace him and they’ll execute you _and us_ for misusing imperial resources!”

Keith sets his jaw. Lance can rail at him all he wants but Keith won’t change his mind. Lance throws his arms up and swears loudly and angrily in Spanish when he realises, he won’t get a response.

Hunk steps closer, his voice as low as Keith has ever heard it from him. “Keith, you know I hate to say this, but Lance is right. They’ll come for him.”

Keith slams the tool in his hand down onto the metal bench hard enough that Hunk flinches. He snaps his brows together hard.

“Then let them try.”

 

* * *

 

Keith is the only one in the lab when the sky outside turns back and the city sparkles through the glass. He sits beside Shiro, his palm placed against skin that feels too warm to be synthetic, staring into eyes too aware to be merely circuits and tech. Shiro’s lips even curve up, the act of a smile that feels achingly real.

Maybe it was real once. Maybe it had been stolen from the young pilot that had gone into the ocean.

Maybe there was someone out there who would have given anything to have that smile back.

Keith doesn’t want to know if there is. He wants that smile to be for him.

“Do you recognise the person in this photo?” Keith asks a few days later.

The lab is empty. It’s just him and Shiro once again. Shiro tilts his head in a gesture that starts to feel deliberate. He doesn’t move to take the photo. His eyes don’t shift until Keith takes it away.

“No.”

Keith nods once and tucks the photo away. Under a pile of used parts destined for the trash. It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t need it. It doesn’t change anything. He looks back at Shiro.

Long, quiet moments pass. He likes this quiet, even if sometimes his heartbeat is loud.

 

* * *

 

Lance slams his palm onto the table, Keith’s tools jolting and bouncing along the worksurface from the impact. “Keith!”

Keith barely looks up. “What?”

The other tech slides close, arms folded across his chest. “Have you been fucking with Shiro’s programming?”

Keith straightens. On the other side of the room, Shiro stands silent by the window, eyes trained on the city landscape. Keith wonders what he’s seeing.

_Does he see the arena? Does he remember?_

“No,” Keith rolls his eyes. “That’s not my area of expertise.”

Lance frowns hard. “Well, has Pidge?”

Keith’s scowls. “I don’t know! Why don’t you ask her?”

Pidge peels away from her station and trundles over on her chair towards them. “Ask me what?”

Lance glances across the room then lowers his voice. “Did you make any changes to Shiro’s programming? I need to upgrade his weapons branch but I can’t get access.”

Pidge bites the inside of her lip. “I can’t access them. Not anymore. There’s a block.”

Lance jerks back. “What? Did you put that there?”

“No.” She turns to Keith. “No one else has had access to him, right?”

“We’re the only ones.”

The beat of silence feels heavy. Pidge lowers her voice. 

“Then he did it. He’s evolving.”

 

* * *

 

“We can’t let him go back to the arena,” Keith snarls, the order flashing on the datapad clutched to his chest. He feels close to panicking. They were supposed to have more time! He was supposed to have more time.

He’s not ready to say goodbye. He’s not sure he ever will be.

Hunk squeezes his shoulder. His dark eyes are warm with sympathy but they read like a betrayal.

“I’m sorry, Keith. But there’s nothing we can do.”

“No,” Keith shakes his head. “No, I won’t accept this. Pidge, surely there’s something I can do?”

He turns to her, eyes blurred with something he refuses to admit could be tears. The datapad is hot under his fingers.  “Pidge, please.”

She stares at him, face impassive behind her glasses. She holds out a hand and Keith hands her the datapad with a flicker of hesitation.

“I can hack the order,” she says quietly. “It won’t stand for long but… It might buy you time.”

 

* * *

 

Time. There’s never enough time.

There’s a swing of a fist and Keith tastes blood at the back of his throat but he doesn’t stop fighting them. The empire’s soldiers had crashed through the lab doors, well into the early morning hours.  Keith had been running diagnostics on Shiro’s chest, trying to work out the anomaly that was plaguing him. It didn’t seem to be causing any harm, he just couldn’t understand the reason for it. 

“Hold him down!”

“Let me go, you fucks!” Keith struggles and a sentry punches him hard again and he drops to his knees, ears ringing. Out of the corner of one eye, he sees them advancing on Shiro, who stands upright, his head tilted and his gaze locked on Keith.

_No. No, don’t take him!_

“Technician Kogane, is it correct that this droid has been functional and in working order for the past two months?”

The empire’s soldier that leans over him looks vaguely familiar. His strange glowing eyes and two flared points on his head tickle something at the back of Keith’s aching head. He’s seen this one before. He knows him from the vid feeds.

Commander Sendak.

“Fuck you,” Keith spits. “He’s not ready yet.”

Keith realises his error too late. Sendak pauses his pacing and rounds on him. He crouches down, closer to Keith’s face. Keith wishes he had the energy to snarl but there’s blood trickling down the side of his face and his jaw aches. 

“ _He’s_ not read yet?”

Keith stares at him mutinously and the commander laughs in his face.

“Really now. Did you name it too?”

Keith tries to lift his head but gets his face mashed into the floor for his trouble. A smear of blood stains the glossy white tiles of the lab.

He grunts. “You know he’s more than that,” Keith mutters. The blood is in his mouth now.

Sendak laughs and it’s ugly.  “No. No, it’s not. Allow me to demonstrate.”

He rises to his feet and stalks over to where Shiro waits, silent and rigid.  “State your identification code, droid.”

“Synthetic human initiative. Revision Omega.”

“And your purpose?”

“I fight in the name of the Empire. At Lord Zarkon’s command.” 

“No,” Keith whispers but it’s broken. Pidge said she had been able to alter those protocols before she had been locked out. _He shouldn’t be saying that!_

“And will you fight as your Emperor wishes?” Sendak demands. He eyes Shiro shrewdly, as though he’s able to see past his skin and into the internals whirring in place instead.

Keith holds his breath.

Shiro doesn’t respond.

Sendak snarls and spins on his heel. “Power it down then dispose of it. A broken solider is no good to me or the empire.”

Keith struggles. “No. No! Please, you can’t to that. Please!”

There’s a pressure on his back he can’t fight and the edges of his vision start to turn black. He rips his focus to Shiro. He stands there silently, eyes sorrowful as they meet Keith’s gaze. As though he knows what’s about to happen.

“I’m sorry,” he says and Keith knows in his bones he’s talking directly to him. He feels the tug on his spine, jolting under his skin.

The sob that tears out of his chest hurts.

“Shiro, Shiro – _No!”_

Sendak offers a cruel smile. “Goodbye, Champion.”

His hand snaps out, gripping at the space of Shiro’s throat. His clawed fingers dig in, and Keith moans into the tiles.

“Shiro. _Shiro!”_

There’s a wet ripping sound that makes Keith whimper and he closes his eyes. It’s too late not to see the way the synthetic flesh and wires are torn away in the soldier’s grip.

Shiro’s eyes go blank, his head tilts forward ever so slightly and the stillness is worse than death.

“What a waste. The champion should have died in the arena, not like this.” Sendak says almost idly. A drip of dark blue-black liquid runs down his hand. “Emperor Zarkon will be most disappointed.”

“High Commander, we can wipe him. Start over. Create a new champion-“

Keith can’t breathe through the sob in his chest, the pain in his heart is so violent he’s sure it will stop beating under the force of the agony, and he wants it. He wants it if it means the pain will stop.

“Dump them both. The empire has no use for traitors.”


End file.
